Problems Facing Urban Water
Permapave™ -- The Solution to Urban Water Pollution

Permapave™ Permeable Pavers are natural stone pavers that provide the most practical and economical solution to eliminate 100% of gross pollutants from waterways and reduce water wastage and have a flow through rate of up to 7.5 gallons per second per square meter. Permapave™ green technology and products, used worldwide, is a result of public concern about and legal requirements for stormwater management. Design implementing permeable paving can become part of the solution to stormwater runoff, turning water wastage into
an asset.

Urban planners and administrators are facing enormous pressure to reduce pollution in the world’s waterways. Permapave™ makes significant contributions to trapping, removing, and treating pollutants from stormwater “at source” and therefore remains at minimal cost. This has been a strong incentive in the USA where the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) places its main priority on controlling stormwater pollution.

Problems Facing Urban Water Permapave™ -- The Solution to Urban Water Pollution

Permeable pavement is the most practical and economical solution to eliminate pollutants from waterways and reduce urban water wastage, which is now essential to urban water management, as the increasing rate of water supply pollution will soon adversely affect every urban dweller worldwide.

The EPA requires developers of projects greater than 1 acre in size to apply for permits for stormwater management. Almost 98% of all development now proceeds under EPA permits which must conform to recognized Best Management Practices. (BMP) BMP’s approved by the EPA include permeable paving. The EPA’s use of permits and BMP’s for stormwater management is typical of the worldwide response to environmental challenges.

A high percentage of pollution gathered by stormwater collection systems is generated by automobiles – heavy metals from tires, hydrocarbons from oil spillage and carbon monoxide particles from exhaust. With the reliance on motor vehicles comes the demand for larger paved areas, which create:

In order to maintain an urban way of life, the quantity of stormwater outflow must be reduced and the management of pollutants and contaminant’s through the stormwater system must be accomplished.

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) aims to manage stormwater and pollution at either the site level or on a regional basis. WSUD provides a rational framework for incorporating permeable paving into urban design. Permeable paving plays a major role in WSUD. Its benefits not only embrace stormwater management and pollution control, but include economical advantages by minimizing the costs of surface draining works, reducing the demands on stormwater sewerage and optimizing land use.

Trapping of heavy metals and hydrocarbons is much more effective in pavements using porous concrete pavers than where paving with drains or widened joints are used. Traditional pavements surfaced with asphalt or concrete are almost impermeable, allow very rapid stormwater runoff, have only a limited ability to assimilate contaminants, may clog and are difficult to clean when clogging occurs. Conventional impermeable pavements rapidly remove water from a tile, therefore require expensive stormwater infrastructure to avoid flooding and act to concentrate pollutants into waterways where they cannot be completely broken down.

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Environmental Protection Agency                                                                    Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States. (The Act does not deal directly with ground water nor with water quantity issues.) The statute employs a variety of regulatory and nonregulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff. These tools are employed to achieve the broader goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters so that they can support "the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the water."

For many years following the passage of CWA in 1972, EPA, states, and Indian tribes focused mainly on the chemical aspects of the "integrity" goal. During the last decade, however, more attention has been given to physical and biological integrity. Also, in the early decades of the Act's implementation, efforts focused on regulating discharges from traditional "point source" facilities, such as municipal sewage plants and industrial facilities, with little attention paid to runoff from streets, construction sites, farms, and other "wet-weather" sources.
Starting in the late 1980s, efforts to address polluted runoff have increased significantly. For "nonpoint" runoff, voluntary programs, including cost-sharing with landowners are the key tool.

For "wet weather point sources" like urban storm sewer systems and construction sites, a regulatory approach is being employed. Evolution of CWA programs over the last decade has also included something of a shift from a program-by-program, source-by-source, pollutant-by-pollutant approach to more holistic watershed-based strategies.

Under the watershed approach equal emphasis is placed on protecting healthy waters and restoring impaired ones. A full array of issues are addressed, not just those subject to CWA regulatory authority. Involvement of stakeholder groups in the development and implementation of strategies for achieving and maintaining state water quality and other environmental goals is another hallmark of this approach.

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